According to Science and Technology Daily, on September 17, the Citation Laureates 2026 were announced, with 22 outstanding scientists receiving the award. Among them, Qikun XUE, academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, President of the Southern University of Science and Technology (SUSTech), and Professor at Tsinghua University, was honored for his experimental observation of the quantum anomalous Hall effect. This is the second time a scientist from mainland China has been named a Citation Laureate. Last year, Tao ZHANG, Academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and researcher at the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, CAS, became the first scientist from mainland China to make the list due to his pioneering work in single-atom catalysis.

The Citation Laureates are selected by the expert team at Clarivate’s Institute for Scientific Information (ISI), a leading global provider of transformative information, aiming to recognize scientists who have made pioneering contributions and shaped the future of science and society. Their research has an impact comparable to that of Nobel Prize-winning work. Since the award’s inception, 89 Citation Laureates have gone on to win Nobel Prizes.

The foundational research papers of Citation Laureates are among the most cited globally in their respective fields, reflecting a deep interdisciplinary and international influence. This year, the awardees’ research covers major issues that require global attention. “These include GLP 1 biology and obesity treatment, optical imaging and immune system research in Physiology or Medicine; advanced OLED display technology, energy-efficient computational materials and quantum electronics in Physics; self-assembled nanomaterials, biological electron transfer, and precision gene editing Chemistry; and digital economy, monetary policy and central banking, and organizational innovation and economic dynamism in Economics,” (stdaily.com).

The 2026 Citation Laureates come from top academic institutions in seven countries and regions, highlighting the global nature of Nobel-level research. Among them, 16 awardees are based in the U.S., and one each in Canada, Denmark, Israel, Japan, China, and Switzerland.

Since 2002, ISI analysts have used literature and citation data from the Web of Science Core Collection to identify researchers whose work reaches Nobel Prize standards. The database has indexed over 67 million papers and conference proceedings since 1970, of which less than 0.02% have been cited more than 2,000 times. Citation Laureates are selected from this elite, high-impact academic group through rigorous citation analysis and expert review.